Lous DeJoy, postmaster general and Trump lackey, testified at the Senate Homeland Security Committee Friday that he would not reactivate the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) sorting machines that have been decommissioned (and in some cases destroyed). "There is no intention to do that. They're not needed," he told the committee. He said that the removal of those machines and mailboxes is perfectly regular and that he didn't order it, “I was made aware when everyone else was made aware.” He said because of the "excitement" caused by the removal of mail collection boxes that he halted their removal, but didn't commit to replacing them or to not resuming their removal after the election.
He did commit to meeting a first-class delivery schedule on election mail, telling Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan that he would meet the delivery schedule that was in effect in 2018 for election mail. DeJoy focused on how he was just a logistics guy brought in to make "the trucks leave on time." He acknowledged: "We had some delays in the mail," adding: "the change that I made was one to our schedule, one to our transportation schedule. I believe we will get at least a billion dollars of savings out of that moving forward and this is the key connectivity to improving our service."
He blamed workers sick with coronavirus for delays. "There was a slowdown in the mail when our production did not meet the schedule," he said, "but also, our employees are experiencing the Covid pandemic also and we have a significant issue in employee availability in many, many parts of the country that are leading to delays in delivering the mail." Democratic Sen. Gary Peters blew that assertion up, sharing a chart that the USPS itself shares with first-class customers demonstrating on-time mail delivery. "There's a flat line a long the top of the chart then it drops. Around July 11th you can start seeing the drop and by the 18th it falls dramatically." The delays didn't happen with the onset of coronavirus—they happened last month when the sorting machines were being ripped out.
DeJoy also stepped in it when he denied limiting and suspending overtime, which, as NBC's Geoff Bennett tweeted, is disputed by "[e]very postal employee I've talked to (from coast to coast)." Knowing that he's going to be appearing before a much less friendly House panel on Monday, DeJoy probably should have thought more carefully about his answers to the Senate.
One thing that's likely to be a much larger focus in that House hearing is how all these changes were arrived at, and the role of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in making it happen. A briefing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus by David Williams, former USPS inspector general and former vice chair of the USPS board of governors, will inform that hearing. Williams said that he resigned "when it became clear to me that the administration was politicizing the Postal Service with the treasury secretary as the lead figure for the White House in that effort."
Peters asked DeJoy about Mnuchin on Friday, and DeJoy's answer was, let's say, unhelpful. "Uh ... I told him I’m working on a plan ... but never discussed the changes ... no, no, no ... great detail other than ... uh ... that’s about it.” He's going to have to sharpen that answer for Monday.
To add to Monday's hearing fodder, Nevada Democratic Sen. Jackie Rosen pressed DeJoy on what analysis he had conducted as to how the changes at the USPS would impact mail delivery to seniors, or veterans, or people having to pay rent and bills on time. DeJoy stubbornly insisted that the "only change I made was that the trucks to leave on time," and that all he would commit to was making the "transportation schedule I directed the organization to adhere to." He left a big hole open there for House Democrats to wedge open in exploring the rationale for any of these service changes.
DeJoy and Chairman Ron Johnson had agreed to do just one round of questions, and every Republican questioner was there to make excuses and jokes, and in the case of Sen. Rand Paul, insist that there had to be even greater cuts and that people who "live down dirt roads" should only get mail two days a week. That should go over well in rural Kentucky. So that happened. The upcoming House hearing, with this as fodder, should be more instructive.
